Femm-mobs
by Title
Summary: Where did these girls come from? When the player encounters mob girls, he gets the feeling a phenomena is taking place within his realm. His attempt at finding an answer in an infinitely expanding world will hopefully lead to the explanation of how the girls came to be, the strange behavior of the mobs, and maybe of the player himself. Based on the mob talker mod for Minecraft.
1. Chapter 1

_Prologue_

 _Hi there. My name is…well I don't really have a name. But you probably know me as Steve; we've met before. This is Minecraft. It's nothing you wouldn't recognize. Everything about this place is orderly and can be reduced piece by piece into something uniform and replicable. You see them as blocks. I couldn't imagine them any other way. Sometimes, we're the same person. It is a way for you and others like you to become a part of this world and create the way I do. We make worlds for fun and the fun of others too, if they feel like joining. Sometimes we make worlds to live in. Surviving what plays out naturally can make the things we end up creating a bit more real and worthwhile. Minecraft is a good place to share with others like us; but this time we're on our own. This is a story of us and stranger things._

* * *

I should start around the time when I met the first of their kind.

I was setting down charges of TNT in one of the caves I was working on. It was almost deep enough to find diamond, so I wasn't worried about destroying anything. I made sure the area behind me was clear so I wouldn't attract attention from any lurking mobs. I used some flint to give it a spark and hurried behind some stone, plugging my ears. The detonation busted through the stone wall with a violent explosion. I may have gone overboard with the charges. To add to that, the wall wasn't as thick as I thought and I ended up blowing completely through to the other side, leaving a gaping hole. At least I got the job done. I took out my torch and tried navigating through the rubble until I spotted something. A body was caught under the exploded rock. Shit. I frantically tried to uncover whoever was underneath, hoping they weren't dead.

It was an orange-haired girl with her clothes in tatters. Whether the clothes were like that to begin with or were a result from the explosion, I couldn't tell. I placed my ear against her chest: she was still alive. Her breaths were faint, giving fear that she might not make it if I didn't get her treated in time. I needed to get us out of the cold temperatures of the cave into some place warmer. Only then could I really treat any broken bones or internal bleeding she might've had. We were in deep below the ground and I had to carry her fragile body to the surface; if I handled her the wrong way, I could very well end up hurting her more. I needed to think of a way to bring her carefully up the winding path of the cave while fending off any hostile mobs. Panic started to settle in. I was very limited on time.

I took a deep breath, poured out all my materials from my bag, and started to think. As an adventurer, survival is something you are forced to master. I brought out my crafting table and got to work.

Soon, I had a wooden wheel-barrow stuffed with sheep wool, which was covered up by leather stretching over the top and sides. It served as a one-man gurney that was cushioned enough to handle her over the rocky path I planned to take. Wooden planks were at the ready to make a makeshift ramp up any ledge I might have had to climb. The wheel-barrow had stints on the back so it could rest upright when unattended. If we were attacked, I'd have to put her down and defend the both of us. I carefully picked up the girl, gently laying her onto the bed of the wheel-barrow. I grabbed the handles, hoisted up, and started to jog back up the path.

The journey was repeated motions of setting her down to build a ramp just good enough to support us, pushing her up, and continuing up the cave. I ran into a relatively few number of mobs on the way, not finding it as difficult as I thought to kill off the skeletons and zombies attacking us. None of them even aimed for her.

We were nearing the surface after an hour or so. My body felt exhausted speeding up the long path, but I felt I had just enough energy to make it out of the cave. We turned a corner in front of two creepers. Their heads snapped to us instantly and they began to start their slow creep towards us. In a split decision, I set down the gurney and dashed past them. They sizzled momentarily until they realized I had gotten too far from them. But what I didn't realize is that they saw the girl first.

I pulled out my bow and tried to shoot them down before they could reach her. As fast as I shot, I could only take down one. I charged in with my sword, screaming and yelling to try and get any sort of attention. But I couldn't get close enough and the creeper started to shake.

The explosion knocked me on my back. The cave wouldn't stop spinning around in my head. My ears rang and my body ached. I laid there, panting as I allowed my failure sink in. I could have saved her, I told myself. I grabbed my sword and slowly dragged myself off the ground, afraid to see what was left from the destruction. The gurney had been blown to pieces. But by a miracle, she was still there.

It sparked some hope that she was still alive. I ran over to check her vitals. Her body took some damage from the explosion, but she was breathing. I didn't have time to wonder how and gathered up the scattered materials of the wagon. I put together another crafting table, pieced together the gurney again, and carried her back on. It didn't take long after that to reach the surface.

I ate an apple on the way back. No time to sit down and eat. We finally reached a cabin I had set up nearby the cave previously. I didn't have as much material as I did back at my home, but it was enough to get her patched up. I removed the remaining tatters of her clothes and checked her body for broken bones. None. I take a closer look for any signs of internal bleeding. None. I checked her body temperature. It was pretty warm, but it didn't seem life-threatening. After all was said and done, the worst she suffered were some bad bruises and scratches. This girl was impossibly tough, I thought. I bandaged her up and fed her medicine just in case. I grabbed a blanket and draped it over her naked body. It was everything I could do for her. Her health seemed to be okay for now, which was all that mattered. All I could do now was wait for her to wake up. I brought up a chair and sat down next to her, glad to finally have a rest.

"Hello?" I heard a light voice in my head. My eyes blinked open. I didn't even realize I had fallen asleep. The girl had gotten up and was standing in front of me, the blanket wrapped around her torso. The ordeal her body went through didn't seem to be affecting her, which still surprised me even though she wasn't actually injured. After being exploded on point blank, I thought she'd at least walk with a limp or something. I asked her how she was feeling and if she remembered anything.

"Um...I feel okay." She answered, her curious eyes examining me. They were really pretty now that they were open, their color as bright as her hair. "I remember an explosion."

I nodded, apologizing about that. I told her it was me that caused it and how I didn't think there was anyone else down there so deep into the cave. I made sure to always double check after that.

Her expression turned from curious to confused. "You…did that?" I again confirmed that it was me. A look of awe dawns upon her face and she grabs me by the shirt, the blanket dropping. My eyes only catch a glimpse before she pulled me close to her face, forcing me to look her in the eye. " **How?! Are you like me?** You look like me... **Can you teach me how?** "

I had no idea what was going on. Maybe she might have gotten hit by one too many explosions. I asked her what she meant, praying that the one cute girl I found out here wasn't crazy.

"Can you teach me how to explode?"

Yup. Crazy.


	2. Chapter 2

She told me her name is Cupa. A creeper.

Cupa was sitting across from me on my bed after I had gotten her settled down. The blanket was back around her body, too. I didn't believe her when she told me the whole creeper spiel, of course. A cute, carrot-haired _human_ girl was going to have a hard time convincing me otherwise when she didn't have any proof. It did explain her exploding question, though.

"I can't explode like any of the other creepers. Since you exploded that wall before, maybe you can teach me how?" Her eyes were very hopeful. I could tell that she had been struggling with this 'problem' for a long time and felt bad that I couldn't give her the answer she was looking for. I properly explained to her how the explosion was made from a device called TNT invented by us humans. I guess I could have shown her how to make TNT, but the last thing I wanted was to arm her with knowledge on explosives to fulfill some twisted creeper fantasy.

I told her to sit there while I went to fetch her some clothes. Any further questions could wait until she was dressed. She probably didn't mind the blanket in the slightest, though. It was definitely better than the rag of clothing she wore when I found her. Standing up, I walked across the room and dug through my chest, getting some of my clothes for the time being. It would be enough until I returned her home, if she had one.

I turned and immediately jumped from Cupa standing directly behind me. The absence of the blanket didn't help either. I covered my eyes, handing her the clothes blindly while I reminded her I told her to stay seated, a bit irritated. I felt her take the clothes and continued to cover my eyes, giving her some time to put it on.

"You know what other mob can sneak up on you like that?" She asked rhetorically. I knew what she was poking at, but it was going to take a lot more than her creepy antics to serve as proof. The ruffling of the clothes stopped and my hands unshielded my eyes so I could see how she looked. The clothes were a little too big, but they did their job. I walked back over to the bed and sat down in the chair, waiting for her to join me.

She sat down across from me, seeing that her successful sneak attack wasn't enough. "Well I survived your explosion, didn't I?"

It was true. She survived two, in fact. I told her that she was hit dead-on by a creeper before I managed to get her out of the cave.

"Aha!" She exclaimed in victory. "Do you know any normal human that could take a creeper blast?" She had me there. It would definitely be game over for anyone unarmored who got hit point-blank. That didn't exactly mean she was a creeper, though. Even other creepers died from exploding next to each other. If she was a creeper, what made her so special? I mean, besides the human-looking part.

I asked her if she was around creepers a lot, since she was one herself. It sounded like a dangerous lifestyle; but if she did live around them, it would make sense for her to have a sort of natural resistance to explosions.

She nodded in response. "Yep. But they tend to stay away from me. I'm sure it's because I look different from them. Or maybe because they're disappointed I can't explode…" Her usually light smile curved into a slight frown at the thought.

But that didn't make any sense. I told Cupa that she was hit by a creeper explosion because they purposefully aimed for her.

"What? They would never do that…" I could see her face trying to make sense of what I told her. Suddenly, she stood up and walked out of the door. Into the night. It took me a moment to realize what she was set out on doing. I chased after her, calling out to say I believed her and that she didn't need to prove anything. It was too late, though. I stopped my chase, afraid to even breathe at all as she stood a few feet away from a creeper.

"I have to see." She said. The ghastly expression of the creeper furrowed into anger the next moment. A low, guttural sound seeped from the opening of its mouth; the fit of rage was nothing I've ever seen before. Cupa had begun whimpering, taking a few steps back. The behavior must have surprised her as well. I yelled at her to get away as it started to charge at her, quicker than any of my previous encounters with one. I was quick to jump in and slash at the creeper, sending it back a good distance with the force of my blow. I follow in, not giving it time to recover as I finish it off with another heavy blow. The creeper puffs and disintegrates, leaving a pile of gunpowder behind.

I turned back to Cupa and asked if she was okay. Her eyes started to water. "I knew they didn't like me before, but…they never attacked me like that." She sniffled. Her sadness seemed so genuine. It was enough to make me believe her, or at least act like it in order to cheer her up some. The creeper attack worried me. A creeper shouldn't attack another creeper. The world just had rules like these that shouldn't be broken, much like the sun rising every day. It was something I would have to think more about later. I needed to get Cupa back into the safety of the cabin until the sun rose or we'd risk getting attacked again.

I guided her back and made a spare bed for her to sleep in. She laid in it while I searched through my inventory for dinner. I took out a potato and baked it in the oven. Cupa stared at me during my cooking process, finally asking me as I took a bite out of the potato. "What are you doing?"

I explained to her that I was eating. Eating is something adventurers did in order to keep up their energy. I knew mobs didn't need to eat; but from what I could tell, she didn't seem to be missing a stomach. Maybe there's just a bunch of meat in its place? It'd be nice to take an X-Ray of her. Whatever _that_ is. She nodded at my explanation, but I could tell it was one of those fake ones you did to make it look like you understood something. I finished my potato and retreated to my own bed, the torch light just bright enough to keep us safe for the night.

I woke up to see the other bed empty. Hoping Cupa didn't just decide to leave on her own, I wandered around the cabin looking for her. I finally found her hunched over the crafting table with the blanket draped over her body as she worked on something. Confused on how she even learned what it was for, I asked her what she was doing.

"I couldn't sleep, so I decided to play around with your stuff. I think I'm getting hang of this crafting thing!" I rubbed my sleepy eyes and looked to the side, noticing a bunch of items she must have made overnight. A few of them looked pretty well done. And useful, too; but most of them were abominations of random materials strung together. A lot of them contained wool; specifically with the colors of green, black, and brown. "Done!" She yelled proudly. I looked over her shoulder to see what she finished.

It was a green zip-up hoodie with the face of a creeper patterned on top of the hood. She stood up and the blanket fell off of her body. I went to cover my eyes, but it seemed she had already made some other clothes to go with her outfit: green thigh-high socks, black panties, and brown gloves. Zipping up the hoodie on her torso, she turned around to show off her new outfit. "So? Pretty good job, huh?"

It was a little revealing on the bottom. I asked her where the pants was.

"These _are_ the pants, silly!" Her hands pulled up the bottom of her hoodie to show the panties again. I blushed, feeling like I had been flashed even though I saw them already. "I just made them really small so my legs have an easier time creeping around."

I guess it made sense, but it was still a bit ridiculous. Although, the outfit looked really nice on her. Not in a perverted way, either. It actually looked like it was meant for her, despite making me feel a little uncomfortable.

My thoughts were interrupted by a rumbling noise coming from Cupa. "Uhh, my stomach feels…." Hungry, I said for her, which was odd considering she was supposed to be a human version of a creeper. We both looked at each other in confusion, unsure of what was happening to her. Besides that, I already knew how to solve her problem. I asked her if she wanted to try that eating thing she saw me do yesterday, as it would stop the feeling in her stomach. She nodded and I led her to the kitchen, making the both of us breakfast for the day.

I set down two plates of boiled eggs, bacon, and bread at the wooden dining table, pulling up two chairs. She sat down and stared at the food in front of her, unsure of what to do at first. I told her to mirror me as I picked up the bread and took a bite. It was her turn. Picking up the bread, she looked over it for a moment before taking a huge chunk out of it. I started to laugh at the sight of her, fluffs of bread awkwardly stuffed into her mouth. It was pretty funny and she started to giggle back, almost choking with the food in her mouth. I start to chew, telling her to bite it into smaller pieces. She nodded back since she was unable to talk properly. After a tough time of chewing, she finally got it down. Cupa smiled at the instant satisfaction and was quick to take another bite.

After finishing our meals, I felt it was a good time to ask her a few more questions. I took my weapon out of my inventory and showed it to her. I asked her to name it.

"A sword." She responded simply, unsure of why I had ask. I then asked how she knew that. The realization dawned on her. "I…I don't know."

It was another piece of evidence to confirm my thoughts. When I found her, she was attacked by her own kind. It may not have happened at first, but I suspected that other hostile mobs may start to turn on her as well. She then developed the spontaneous ability to use a crafting table without instruction. Maybe not spontaneous. Her crafting skill still needed some work at the time. Then, she developed hunger that morning. At that moment, I learned she knew the name of items she had never seen before. I told her I wasn't exactly sure of it, but she seemed to be turning into an adventurer.

"An adventurer? Like you?" She asked, surprised. I nodded. After hearing my explanation, she did seem to believe it more. "But why?"

I said I didn't have the slightest clue. But if this was true, it was incredibly convenient that we had met before the transformation started to take place. I could train her to become an adventurer.

She smiled, quite excited by the idea. It was something that could make up her lacking ability to explode. "When do we start?"

I tossed her an iron sword. It was now.

We went outside and I took the time to set up wooden dummies made out of tree logs. She held the sword almost naturally and I taught her some basic swings in order to teach her the fundamentals of attacking something. It wasn't long before she reduced the dummies back to their material. It was a job well done by her. She also seemed to be having a lot fun. "Alright, what's next?!"

I set up the wooden dummies again and took out my own sword, putting all of my body weight behind my first blow and breaking the dummy in front of me. I instructed her to do the same to her own dummy.

"Okay. Doesn't seem so hard…"She bent her knees, staring down the dummy fiercely before jumping into her swing. She only managed to produce an unsatisfying _thunk_. The sword had hit down on a bad angle. She frowned and backed up, trying again. And again. And again.

A while passed before she finally grew frustrated. "Urgh!" As she tossed the sword, she stomped up to the dummy and cocked back her right arm. It flies and smashes right into the wood, knocking the top half clean off back into material form. We both stare at the half-dummy, shocked that she had that in her. I picked her sword off the ground and placed it back into my inventory. Yeah, this girl was tough. She looked over to me, smiling. "Kind of the same thing, right?" I shrug in response, but I said it was probably best if she stuck with her fists.

Seeing the wooden material laying on the ground, I instructed her to pick it up and put it away in her inventory. Picking up the log, she looked at me, still unsure of what to do. "So how do I put it away, again?"

It was difficult to teach something that felt so natural to me. I instruct her to try and compact the log. If she wanted to put it away, she would need to make it smaller. If she squeezed it with her hand, her mind will follow. Her open palms started to close; but before her fingers could even touch it, the log began to shrink down in size until it was a particle of a floating log. She stared at it in amazement before it promptly disappeared from her hands. "Huh? Where did it go?"

Adventurers have a place within them called the inventory. It removes the strain that other humans have in carrying around their items. I told her to look within herself and to close her eyes if it would help. She closed her eyes and nodded, confirming she could see the log. I also showed her the bag I kept on me, saying how they're particularly useful in pulling out things quickly if you used them often enough.

"Wow. I didn't know I could do so much as an adventurer." Deciding to experiment, she pulled out the log from her inventory and increased it back to normal size within her hands. She placed it back onto the half dummy, smiling to herself.

I suggested that maybe she was really meant to become an adventurer all along instead of a creeper.

Her eyes fell to the ground. "Yeah…" I instantly regretted saying that. I didn't understand how she felt about her situation. Being a creeper must have meant a lot to her. I walked over to her and held her shoulder in comfort, saying she could learn anything she wanted at this rate. Learning how to explode would be no problem for her. Though I really hope she didn't. After all, I still wanted to have someone like her to stick around for as long as she could. She cracked a smile at my words, her eyes returning to me. "Thanks for all of this. It really means a lot that you'd help someone like me. It feels nice to finally have a friend around." I gave her a quick squeeze and told her it wasn't a problem at all and that I was happy to help. I didn't admit it to her, but it was nice to have someone else around after all the time I've been out here. Especially with someone as cute and friendly as her.

We came back inside the cabin and I started rummaging through my chest, placing things inside my bag. Cupa stared over my shoulder. "So are we learning anything else today?"

I responded with a yes, focusing more on getting everything we needed. I told her that the majority of her next training would be applied as we traveled. "Oh. Well where are we going?"

I stand up and hand her a few counts of food and tools to her inventory, smiling. We were heading back to my home, I said. It had been ages since I've been back, traveling long distances out in the wilderness to gather my annual set of materials. I figured now would be a good time to end my gathering and take her back with me. She placed the items in her inventory, happily looking over her new things. "A long journey sounds fun! How long do you think it will take?"

A straight trip would take a few days, but it may take longer with the compound of her training, which I was fine with. I took my map and led her out of the house, stating how it'd be best if we started our trip now. Closing the door behind us, I looked at the map for a moment before facing her, asking if she was ready.

She gave a confident smile, brushing her orange hair to the side before donning her hood. "Let's do it!"

We started west and began our very long journey home.

* * *

Hi. If you've read this far, leave me a review telling me of what you thought so far. Every review is much appreciated and pushes me to continue.


	3. Chapter 3-1

"Ooh! Hey look at this one!" Cupa bent down and picked up another dandelion. It didn't look any different to me than the other hundred-or-so that she picked, but I continued to humor her. Her eyes would light up every time she saw one. Luckily, we never passed over a field of them. It'd probably be days before we got moving again.

Our journey started only a couple of days ago, but I had already managed to teach her every basic aspect needed to survive on her own. There were plenty of wild cows and pigs for me to teach her hunting. I had plenty of cobble stone in my inventory, so I even went through the whole process of building and using the oven, both as a cooking tool and as a forgery tool. I let her have it after the lesson was over.

"Really? You sure you want to give me something so important?" She asked, looking at the shrunken oven in her palm.

I nodded. She was still having a hard time grasping how much easier a crafting table made to build replicable things like that. I wasn't surprised, though. Her first experience with the table was in making her clothing. Unique items like that are a little harder to make.

There were other times when I showed her how to build basic tools like the axe, shovel, and pickaxe. If we ever found a cave along the way, I'd take her with me to go spelunking for materials. It wasn't long before she started hauling in iron like a natural.

During the nights, I'd show her ways to produce light to ward off monsters. Shelter building was also part of the lesson, teaching her techniques like into the ground for a quick room or building one just small enough to last through the night. The darkness also allowed Cupa to work on her fighting skill. The first attack we went through resulted in a few arrow wounds for her. Where I might have winced from the pain, she charged through the arrow-fire just to slam a skeleton down into the dirt where it belonged. After the fight, I wrapped her up; but her pain tolerance still allowed her to adventure at full speed. I had to make her take it easy for a day in order to let the wounds heal properly. Although she could take an explosion or two, that fight told her she was susceptible to piercing. As we fought more as a team, we developed a few handy tactics that I never could have done on my own. She was quick to learn the basics of a real fighting environment. Even the occasional group of spiders or creepers were easily taken care of.

I'd say she had already become a full-fledged adventurer despite being a few days in our journey. I decided to give her the map to get her accustomed to navigating with it. She had been doing a good job so far, despite being distracted by flowers recently. I asked her if it was because she had never been to the surface.

"I have," She said, still dawdling over the dandelions. "But I never left too far from the cave you found me in. That was where I lived all my life."

I found it pretty odd that curiosity never drove her to adventure out there. Living with silent monsters, which wasn't a phrase I was going to use in front of her, must have pushed her to seek out something else.

She shook her head. "They would talk to me sometimes."

I stared at her, a bit skeptical.

"We didn't say words, dummy. We had ways to communicate with each other." She stood up from the flowers and faced me. "Sometimes we made subtle body movements, but a lot of it was just… _feeling_ what another creeper was thinking. When you grow up around it, all you can hope to do is learn. So I did." She smiled. "Besides, I never really felt the urge to adventure before you came along."

She paused for a moment. "Hey, since you've been an adventurer for so long…why do you think I exist?"

It was such a loaded question. I wasn't sure how to respond.

"I mean it all just feels so weird that I'm the only one who's like this. Why aren't there more creepers like me?" I could tell she didn't expect me to know the answers completely, but I wanted to find out as much as she did. I said that there was always a chance to find answers whenever you explored the world; and as big as this world is, I don't think we would be running out of places to look anytime soon. She nodded and kept on with her spirit, ready to get the journey moving.

Cupa pulled out the map to see where we would head to next. "Hey! How about we go over here? The map is blank."

I came and took look over her shoulder. Her finger was pointed to a huge blank spot in the map. It was the entire left side of the map, save for the long path along the top. It connected our destination in the top left into the partially-filled right side of the map. I took the route avoiding the center since water kept me from going towards it. I said she got the right idea.

"Yes! Let's go." She marched on ahead of me.

The surrounding hills and meadows remained unbroken for a while during our new travel path. The sun had reached high noon before things began to change; hills started to recede and the grass turned a lush green; humidity had flipped on a dime and the air felt warmer; trees began having flat-topped canopies with vines hanging off of them. I told her we found a swamp.

"Is it always this warm?" She asked, taking off her gloves. "My palms are sweaty."

I nodded, saying that the breeze along the ocean would help if we could find it.

For a swamp biome, it was incredibly huge. We found a body of water and traveled along its coast line in order to break out into the ocean, but there was no sign of how close we were getting. At least we had constant chirping of bugs to help us. Any direction where their chirping grew less meant we were heading in the right direction. Cupa seemed about done with the noise, anyway. The sun had started to retreat to the horizon. It was close to setting and it would soon be dark. We pick mushrooms along the way and I tell Cupa we might have to set up camp soon. I doubt we would have made it back to our original path towards home if we turned around at that moment. She didn't respond since she was so busy staring at something. I turned to what she was looking at. It was a giant brown mushroom.

" _Woooah._ It's so big!" The creeper girl walked towards it, not stopping until she was right under the cap. The giant brown mushroom made for a nice roof to rest under for a while. It smelled like mushroom, but what could you do? It was a fair price for convenience. We started building walls to complement the mushroom roof for our shelter. With the two of us, it didn't take long to finish. Simple wooden walls and door to boot. She worked on setting up the interior while I lit up our surrounding with torches. By the time the sun had gone, our cozy place in the swamp was nice and bright. We both went inside for the night, getting our fill of dinner before trying to sleep through the night.

I sat up in my bed. It was just in the early hours of the morning, but still a bit too dark to start traveling again. Cupa had also woken up. We looked at each other knowingly; there was something moving outside.

I peeked my head out the door first. Confirming that the entrance was clear, I let Cupa take the lead. Using her masterful sneaking skills, she silently moved along the wall, nodding to me as she checked around the corner of our shelter. I joined her at the corner and told her to check around the back. Once she reached that corner and looked, she didn't look back. Not waiting for her signal, I came up behind her to peek around. We both stared in shock. I had thought it would be a slime, but I wasn't exactly right.

It was in the shape of a grown woman with her entire body of slime. Even the dress she wore was slime, though it was denser to effectively cover up her body. Her translucent fingers brushed against the wooden panels. She must have had never seen a shelter before. Finally, her gaze turned to us, rendering all three of us in shock.

I saw that her first reaction was to run. "Wait!" Cupa reached for her to stop. The slime girl, although worried, decided to stick around a little longer.

Cupa approached her slowly as she spoke. "I'm a creeper. I thought I was the only other one like me until I saw you. I…we can help you find answers you're looking for."

"…You…are like me?"

Cupa nodded, smiling with some hope that she would understand.

"Oh, I'm so happy!" The green lady hugged the shorter creeper tightly, smiling for the first time. I could see Cupa sinking into her soft body, her eyes looking at me to help her.

I approached the two and convinced the excited slime girl to separate.

"Oh! So sorry!" Her arms opened and Cupa pops out, looking unamused as she wiped herself off with her sleeve.

After we all introduced ourselves, I learned that her name was Emi. I explained to her our story of how I discovered Cupa and our efforts to find a way out of the swamp towards the ocean.

She gave a kind smile. "I'd love to show you the way out. You wouldn't mind if I came too, would you? I understand if that is too much to ask." Before I could give her an answer, Cupa and I spot a herd of green bouncing towards us. Slimes were set on course for an attack. Emi turned to see them rushing in. "Why are there so many of them?"

I told her she needed to show us towards the ocean. Now. Emi understood right away and we started running towards shore. The slimes must have spawned overnight. We were hoping we could lose them, but the irregular path of the swamp water made our escape path inefficient. With the slimes' ability to travel through water and Cupa's lack thereof, it was much tougher than usual. We ran into a few stray slimes on the way as multiplying gave us a handful to fight against. Emi, though confused as she was, had good enough reflexes to avoid a lot of the attacks until we could help her fight off her own slimes. We charged through some of them, opting to run if there weren't too many in our way. We eventually lost sight of them, and them of us, before breaking out from beneath the canopy of the swamp oaks.

Sunlight filled our eyes and the humidity was swept away by the cool breeze of the ocean. It was a welcomed feeling after our tiring escape. All of us collapsed onto the ground for a quick rest.

"Why did they attack me like that," Emi wondered, "They've never done that before."

"That happened to me, too," Cupa said. "Creepers have never attacked me before I started becoming an adventurer. Maybe you're starting to become one, too?"

"Really? Does it hurt?"

I chuckled and shook my head. There were a few ways to find out if she indeed was transforming like Cupa. I asked her how she felt.

"Tired. And…something new?" Her green hands felt around her stomach, searching where the feeling was coming from. We were all hungry after that morning exercise. I took out a few apples from my bag and handed some to them.

"What you need is to eat!" Cupa said. "Like this." She dramatically gaped her mouth and chomped down on her apple, making a crisp crunch as she chewed. Emi watched in amazement as she watched studiously. Confident she had the right idea, she glomped the entire apple into her mouth, swallowing it whole. We watched with equal amazement as the apple went down her throat before disappearing behind her dress.

"Thank you! I feel much better."

After finishing breakfast, I asked Cupa for the map. She found now had the strength to crawl over and hand it to me with Emi joining as well. Our eyes spotted a solid red arrow of where we are. We had traveled a longer distance through the swamp than I expected.

"When did you find the time to fill in the map so accurately?" Cupa said. Obviously I never did find the time, but the map had done it for me. I explained to her adventurers tended to craft guiding properties of the compass into parchment paper. This gave maps the convenient ability to visualize any area around the adventurer in the correct orientation.

"I never knew my home was so big." Emi said.

Cupa looked to her in surprise. "So you never left your home either?"

She shook her head. "I never had a reason too." Smiling, she stood up and scanned the vast expanse of the ocean. "But now I can't wait to see what else is out there."

I smiled. She was definitely an adventurer now. I responded by saying the idea I had in mind. She gave a big smile, nodding. "That sounds lovely."

Cupa started to teach her the basics of building while I went to cut down some trees. We were planning to build a boat that would be comfortable for the three of us and sail towards home. The map told me enough that traveling by water would be more efficient than traveling back through the swamp. If my guess was correct, we could cut out most of our journey by water. By the time we made it back to shore, it should only take us a few hours to make it back home. Building up the boat took longer than I had expected. It was actually more of a small ship than a boat, which was fine considering it would take a week or so to finish sailing. Besides, calling it a ship sounds better. As captain of the would-be ship, I told Emi to place the finishing touches on the ship while Cupa and I hunted for food. By the time the sun reached its peak, we were ready to go to sea.

The three of us climbed on and rolled down the sails. The ocean breeze was strong enough to push us out into the ocean, heading straight for our destination. Without the need to steer for now, we all sat on the rear end of the ship to watch the mainland recede into the distance.


	4. Chapter 3-2

Our week-long trip gave Emi plenty of time to learn the ways of an adventurer. Cupa was excellent in catching her up with everything I had taught the creeper girl. There were things like hunting we couldn't effectively teach her on the ship, but she learned mostly everything else there was to know; except there was one basic thing we couldn't quite teach her.

We had set up wooden dummies to have Emi learn the basics of fighting. Cupa was the instructor for this lesson, so I sat back and watched.

"Okay," Cupa lifted her sword. "All you have to do is swing, and swing hard!" She slashed at the logs, leaving a clean cut across the width. "Now you try."

"Oh! Alright." The slime girl held her sword tentatively, rearing it above her head before slicing down. The sword bounces off. The flat side lands against her head, making it jiggle from the force. "Ow…" I was surprised someone so soft could even get hurt.

Cupa looked over to me, unsure what she was doing wrong. I shrugged back. "Umm…maybe you just didn't swing hard enough! You can try again."

Emi nodded, determined even more to cut the log. She readies her blow to the side this time in order to avoid getting smacked again. With enough strength, she managed to cut into the dummy, but the recoil caused the sword to fly out of her hand, skimming past Cupa. It left the creeper girl fearing for her life. "Way too close!" She said, clutching where the blade had torn her hoodie.

Emi covered her mouth in embarrassment. "Oh my, I'm really sorry! I just can't control my strength."

"Hey! It's alright. We can try something else instead." Cupa placed the sword back into her inventory, readying her fists. "You can try punching!" She winded back her arm and clocked a straight into the dummy, knocking it cleanly in half just like the first time we trained. Emi nodded and tried to do the same. She balled up a fist and did her best to smash her dummy, but her jelly hand jiggled and bounced right off. The sword was much more effective, though not by much.

"Oh…maybe slimes aren't meant to fight." Emi said, defeated.

It was the same for other things too, such as mining and chopping wood. She did fine digging, since it didn't rely on striking; because it wasn't her strength that was the issue: it was her body. She just didn't know what the problem exactly was. Remembering back, I noticed that Emi had never split when we were running away from the slime attack. It would have made it easier to avoid attacks if she was smaller and the numbers would have helped in distracting them. I asked her about it.

"Well...I don't know how."

"You too, huh?" Cupa said. "I could never explode like any of the creepers could."

Emi gave her a sympathetic look. "Oh, that's unfortunate." She gives the sad creeper girl a squishy hug, which Cupa didn't fight back from this time.

While they hugged it out, I gave the situation some thought. Emi's viscosity may be something she never learned how to control. This was how slimes jumped, since they don't have any actual muscles to jump with. Her current state right now was firm enough to move, but not strong enough damage. It must have also been the reason why she couldn't split like other slimes did. I asked her more about it.

"Maybe that's it! But...I wouldn't know how to control it if I tried." Emi said.

Cupa gave the slime woman a few pokes to the belly. "Maybe you just need some motivation!"

"Ah! Stop, that tickles~" She swatted Cupa's hand away, but the creeper girl wouldn't stop. Her one finger would send ripples through Emi's body.

"Well maybe if you weren't so squishy, this wouldn't be so fun!~"

I wasn't going to lie. It _did_ look fun. Maybe it was time for a break anyway, I thought. Cupa seemed to be connecting a lot more with Emi than I ever could. The two were estranged by the same weird fate. I'm not sure if I'd ever understand what they were going through.

...

Emi continued to train under Cupa as they talked. After more failed attempts, they both agreed that the slime girl really wasn't made for combat after all. They strolled around the boat, telling stories of their respective places.

"So I jumped on the mushrooms," Emi said, holding back her laughter. "And the slimes jumped with me! All of them just splattered onto the cap, before they popped right back up, completely fine." She said, making a popping motion with her fingers.

Cupa laughed, which was something she never had the chance to do often. "That sounds like pretty bad fall."

"For me!" Emi said. "My legs stayed jiggled for weeks! Oh, but it was so much fun." The memory was something she'd always be fond of. It did make her stop smiling when she realized she might not make any more memories like that. They both watched over the rolling seas, contemplating on how they would ever return to their homes.

"If I went back to the cave," Cupa said, "I could never live safely anymore." She moped her head on the railings of the ship.

"To lose a home…I didn't think I would miss it this much." Emi sighed, her eyes staring vacantly out to the ocean. There was no land in sight. The view only served to make the two feel more isolated and lonely. Even the sun had begun to leave them, being too tired to offer any more light in the world

"You ever think we'll ever learn to be who we're meant to be?" Cupa asked. If she could explode, maybe the creepers wouldn't be so mad at her and attack. Maybe they would let her stay again.

Emi frowned. "I'm not sure. I hope so. I think it's the only way the slimes will let me back." She stood, stretching her arms above her head. "But you know what? We're really seeing the world for once. This can't be such a bad thing" She sat back against the sail pole, a warm smile on her face. "It's a nice little thing we're being together, you know…like…"

The creeper girl smiled back. "Friends. Like friends." Giving a content sigh, she rested beside Emi and looked to the sea. "You're really nice to talk to, y'know?"

...

Sleeping was much easier with the constant rocking of the motion; but this night, it felt much more violent. The interior furnishings of the ship refused to stay in place. The entire room looked like a bunch of panicked chests and pickaxes. I get off the bed and steady myself, the two girls doing the same as we looked outside. It was raining heavily due to ocean storms. My vision was almost useless with the moonlight blocked behind the grey clouds. Everything outside seemed dark, but the distant sparse of clear skies gave a glimpse of a tall boulder. It grew larger by the minute.

I swung open the door to the deck, marching through the gusts of wind to reach the front of the boat. It was definitely a mountain. Running to the steering wheel, I tried to get the ship under control. Cupa and Emi hurried over to help, though our combined strength was a flimsy stick compared to the storm. I yell at the girls to rush back to the quarters and grab as much stuff as they could. I ditched the wheel and grabbed my bag, stuffing it full with whatever I could find. We all hurried to the deck just in time to jump off the ship, landing on cliff ledge at the side of mountain with the ship crashing just below us. We watched over the ledge as the broken ship sunk along with any salvageable material.

We go back under the cliff ledge, the overhanging mountainside giving some cover from the heavy rain. "Well that really sucked." Cupa took off her soaked hood.

Emi's slimy body didn't help in keeping her dry, either. "What are we going to do?" She began searching through her inventory to see what she had left from the ship.

I got out a torch and noticed the darkness behind me. It was a cave. I walked into it, the light never reaching a wall. It seemed like the cave went down deep into a tunnel. I told the two that if we went inside, we may reach the other side and end up back on land. It would likely be warmer inside the cave anyway once we had a fire going. The girls nodded, taking out their own torches. We began our journey into the deep tunnel, unaware of the place we descended into.


	5. Chapter 4-1

The torchlight barely permeated the darkness of the cave as we traveled. Deep rumblings ran across the rocky walls. It seemed that the storm outside was picking up. We were deep enough inside the cave to settle down, but the tunnels never seemed to close off. At that moment, we had no idea how deep it would go. Curiosity drove all of us to continue. None of us wanted to sit around waiting for the storm to pass. At first, at least. Emi looked like she had a change of mind.

Emi was jumpy, her head shrinking back into the crook of her neck whenever she heard a noise. "How much longer are we going to be in this tunnel? It's so tight…"

I told her I didn't have any idea. Caves could be incredibly complex and deep.

Cupa tried to reassure her. "Don't even worry about it. You'll get used to it." Of course she would say that as someone who lived inside spaces like these. I understood where Emi was coming from, though. It was tough, even for me. I wouldn't be surprised if she felt a little homesick then. The tunnels grew narrower as we moved on, making it especially tough if we ran into anything we'd have to fight.

The tunnels grew so narrow that it got to the point where we filed one after the other. I was in front leading the group with Cupa in the back putting up an occasional torch as we went. It might have been best to head back at that point, but we all hoped that the tunnel would open soon. Not soon enough, unfortunately. The orange light exposed a small cluster of red in the dark. They were eyes. A giant spider loomed out of the shadows, tumbling towards us along the side of the wall. I pulled out my sword to fend it off. I swung at it, though the constricting walls didn't give me much room to do so. The spider screeched at us. Its legs began to grab for the sword in an attempt to get around it. Its eight eyes were aimed straight for me.

"Watch out for the pincers!" Cupa said, her fists at the ready, though unable to do much since she was two people spots away from the action.

Emi was squished in between us. "Cupa, I think you should watch behind us!" She managed to yell. At least her body handled the squishing well.

My sword point gave one good lunge straight into the head, silencing the spider immediately. The body falls and crumples to the ground before poofing. The three of us stared at the spot it once was a moment ago. We were still pretty tense.

"Jeez…" Cupa grumbled.

"Mhm…" Emi was still shaking. "I hope we never run into one of those again."

I couldn't blame them. I hated spiders as much as the next adventurer.

We continued on our way. The spider encounter got me thinking. A creeper finding its way in our path would have easy pickings before it fulfilled its only role in the world. Boom, the three of us gone. That really would've been the worst possible situation. I told Cupa to keep an ear out for them. Even with her probably exceptional creeper detection, I couldn't shake the feeling. The cave exploration went on like this for a slow half of an hour. My legs started to feel like Emi's. Not literally, since she was holding out the best out of the three of us. I could feel a cool breeze coming from the front. We were close.

The walls of the cave broke away, my torch light no longer constricted. Emi and Cupa both took out their torches as well. Even then, it wasn't enough light to reveal the entire cave room. But it was enough to wake someone.

We took a few steps forward, looking around in the darkness to get a hold of our bearings. I was still trying to decipher it when Cupa spoke, nodding her head confidently.

"The room is abnormally huge. Cave ceiling feels about 30 blocks high."

I had no idea how she figured that, but I trusted her. I like to believe I would have come to the same conclusion. Eventually.

"Should we rest, now?" Emi said. Her head revolved around, look uneasily at the darkness surrounding us.

I was about to stop for our would-be camp before a small form entered the light. A lithe girl was curled up on the floor, her long, purple hair draped across the cave floor as she slept. Once the torchlight spilled across her eyes, they fluttered open and the drowsy girl sat up.

"Who's there?" Her hands balled into fists, rubbing her eyes open. Her large irises had a deep color of red like the spider before. Unlike that spider, she gave the color liveliness. Her eyes inspected the three of us thoroughly and quickly.

The young girl was quick to stand, eying cautiously at me in particular. "No one ever comes down here. And you're human." She bent her knees in the most intimidating pose she could come up with despite her size. "I'll bite."

I started to get the gut feeling something bad was about to happen soon. A girl wouldn't be deep inside a cave unless…

"Wait," Emi bent down slightly to match the girl's height. "You're not like me, are you?"

I saw the realization dawn on the girls face. "Hey, you're like a slime…" She prodded a finger against Emi's arm, making it jiggle the way gelatin did.

Emi nodded, giggling. "I am. And you must be a lovely spider, am I correct?"

The girl gave a wide smile and nodded, turning her sour attitude sweet. "Yeah, you bet." At least she seemed to like Emi.

Cupa joined the two. "Hey there. I'm a creeper. Also like you." She gave the spider a little wave.

"Wow…" The girl stood on her toes to get a better look at Cupa's hoodie. Looking down at her own attire of rags, she must have felt underdressed. "You think you could make me something like that?" She didn't even question Cupa's legitimacy as a creeper. The girl had nothing to show for it other than the hoodie she made for herself. I wonder if it was in their nature to know.

"Sure," Cupa smiled at the chance to design someone else's clothing. I didn't blame her, the spider girl being as cute as she is. "I got a few ideas already."

"My name is Emi. This is Cupa. What's your name?"

"Sybil," She replied. "Sybil the spider." Sybil glared at me in suspicion. Her red eyes had a way in getting to you. "Why are you guys with him?"

"Oh, don't worry about him," Cupa said. "He's helping us out to become adventurers."

The spider girl raised her brow. "Adventurers? I thought you guys were mobs?"

"We are," Emi said. "But we also became adventurers too some time ago once we met him."

Cupa nodded. "If things go the same as last time, you might become one too!" Her voice echoed in the large cave.

"Oh…" Sybil looked worried. Her eyes trailed upward. "What about the other spiders?"

Other spiders?

We all looked up to the dark ceiling. A small octet of eyes awakened to the sound of shouting, starting a cancerous chain to blanket the entire surface from wall to wall. It was a horrifying light show as ceiling of spiders blinked their eyes individually. It didn't take long for them to spot us. The eyes began to fall.

I yelled at everyone to move, yanking Sybil with me back towards the entrance. I felt her yank back against me.

"Not that way! We won't make it!"

I found myself chasing her lead with Cupa and Emi sprinting close behind. The spiders all screeched in skin-crawling unison as they closed in on us. Our torchlight caught the entrance. We were close. I yelled back to the two girls to pull out any spare material to block our exit.

"Got it!" They both said, digging through their bags. Some of the spiders had reached the floor at this point, scuttling behind us. I could see them crawl over each other in rolling waves just to reach us. I forced Sybil to fall back behind me as I dealt with the spiders blocking our path. It was impossible to kill one at a time. All I could manage was to knock them away and try to ignore the pain. Cupa did her best to punch them off of us. One of their spindly appendages grazed the back of my neck before Sybil slammed her foot right into its abdomen. The spider flew back into the sea of others that scrambled over the crumbled body. They were almost on top of us but we had only a few more blocks to go. We all dived into it at what was the last second we had, I'm sure. Me, Cupa, and Emi all chucked our material back in hopes of blocking out the spiders.

Cobblestone covered the entrance in unsystematic fashion. Their legs poked through the holes, scrapping the walls in an attempt to get through. But they couldn't. We all scurried away for a few more steps before collapsing, out of breath. Seeing so many legs made me shudder. I'm sure the others felt the same, though Sybil probably wasn't as unnerved in the same way the rest of us were. We would have gone farther, but we didn't have the energy. Eventually, they legs receded. It wasn't until we all were completely out of danger that I noticed how beat up we all were. Sybil, who was in the middle of the group during our run, made it out the easiest.

I took the opportunity to put up some torches. Our escape route seemed to be another long tunnel. It was roomier, at least. There was plenty of room for us to rest for a while before continuing on.

First order of business was to get everyone patched up. I pulled off Cupa's hoodie to expose all of her wounds. I get the bandage tight around my hands before winding it around her arm.

"Thanks again," The creeper girl said. "You must be tired looking after me all the time, huh?"

I smiled and said it was nonsense. I told Sybil to careful watch my technique as I finished up the arm, handing a roll to her so she could try on Emi.

Sybil nodded solemnly. "Okay. I think I got it."

She walked over to Emi, crouching down with her bandage roll in hand. She gasped at the small chunks missing from Emi's arm and side. Clear fluid dripped from the wounds like blood. "Oh no…"

"It's okay," Emi said to her. "It isn't your fault. I'm not much of a fighter." She held out her arm, ready for Sybil's administrations. Unrolling the bandage, Sybil began to work her way around the wound. Emi smiled softly, trying to reassure the spider girl that she was doing her best. "You did great in getting us out of there."

"Why did they act like that?" Sybil said. The whole ordeal left her vulnerable and dismayed. "They've never done that around me…"

"It's okay. Cupa and I experienced the same thing you did just now. I don't think the spiders see you as a mob anymore."

"But I am!" She cried. "So why…" Her grip on the bandage tightened, causing Emi to wince.

"I don't know, sweetie." The slime held Sybil's hand, causing her to realize her tension and loosen her grip. "That's why we're traveling with him. He's taught us to adapt to this new lifestyle without our mobs. This way, we might find the chance to answer some of these questions."

Sybil wasn't sure what to say about all of it. Silently, she lifted Emi's arm out of the way to start bandaging up her side.

I finished wrapping up my own bites before getting everyone to move farther away from the spider cave. We probably wouldn't have been able to get comfortable sitting next to it. Once we got far enough, I began working on the fire. Cupa helped with what she could, handing me some of her sticks for tinder. It didn't take long to get a steady flame up. We sat around it with a few raw pork chops skewered above.

"Wow that smells amazing…" Sybil's mouth watered as she stared. Her big eyes would have sparkled if they could.

Emi lit up in response. "Ah, so you are becoming and adventurer!" She clapped her hands together in delight.

"Yup," Cupa nodded. "One of the great things about becoming an adventurer is getting to taste food." Her fingers wriggled together. "Mmm…it's pure pleasure in your mouth…" She started to blush just from talking about it. It made me a little uncomfortable, to be honest.

Sybil took her first bite of food. Cupa and Emi watched her in anticipation. "…It's so good!" The spider girl's face looked unnaturally happy as if she didn't understand what was going on. The two others happily joined in the meal. I took a bite of my own, glad to get some energy back in me.

After the meal was over, we all rested a while longer. I don't think any of us were ready to get exploring again after what happened. Sybil was probably affected the most out of us. I guess experiencing food wasn't enough to cheer her up.

I asked her what she was thinking about. She gave me a look. It seemed like she still didn't trust me. No, it was deeper than that. She had put blame on me. "Why did this only happen when you came along?" She began to fume. "I was perfectly happy and now I have nowhere else to go!"

"Sybil!" Emi stood up, shocked by the sudden anger.

"What? Aren't you upset too!?" Sybil turned to Cupa. "What about you!? Isn't he the reason why we're out of our homes? I've lived with those spiders my entire life and they tried to hurt me, like they hated me…" Her eyes glared at me, the campfire revealing tear streaks down her cheek. "Because of you!"

Cupa stepped closer to her, concerned. "We don't know that."

No, she was right. Three similar events was too much proof that this ordeal isn't just some coincidence. I had thought about it before, but Sybil yelling at me made it hard to see it any other way. Once I had found the mob girls, all three of them were attacked immediately after. Their transformation into adventurers are what most likely caused the mob attacks. Something I was doing, even if it was only something simple as showing up around them, must be the thing that was causing them to change. I tried to say how I was sorry but I wasn't doing this to her on purpose. Ultimately, I was trying my best to fix what I had done wrong; and because I didn't know what I was doing, I would have to figure it out first in order to make it stop and have any chance reverting this effect. I was no closer to finding the answer and her anger and uncooperativeness did not make it easier.

It was after I finished talking when I realized how loud my voice got. Sybil held her teary glare until silently sitting down, feeling her energy drain back down again from the emotion. Her face buried between her knees as she cried.

Emi bent and hugged her around the shoulders. "You don't need to shout at her." It was one of the few times she looked at me with disapproval.

"But he's right." Cupa turned to me, not quite looking me in the eye. I wondered if their view of me had changed. I wouldn't have blamed them. I really was the cause of their lives turning to shit. It didn't matter if I had a say in it or not. Sighing, I told her it might be best if I explored ahead while they stayed behind for a while. This tension wasn't going to go away on its own and I didn't want to try talking anymore to dispel it. I left them to themselves. Hopefully they would have it sorted out by the time I got back.

...

Sybil sat between the two mob girls closer to the warmth of the campfire. The tears had stopped, but her moping didn't. She did, however, understand that it would be pointless fighting against them. They were only trying to help her. She spoke up, her voice a bit shaky from crying. "Did you guys get upset once you realized you had to leave home and travel with him?"

"Well…" Cupa scratched the side of her head. "I was knocked out when he found me and I only had one creeper to deal with. But the creeper part was my fault. Mostly…" The creeper girl took off her gloves, playing with them in her hand as she talked. "But I'm not sure if I ever belonged with them. We mostly kept to ourselves."

"Yeah," Sybil replied, "I guess I never really belonged with the spiders either. I knew I was different, but you kinda just forget it after being with them so long." She turned to Emi. "What about you?"

"I was upset at first." Emi said. "I used to play with the slimes a lot back at home, even though I was different. I miss them sometimes. But I also think it's a great thing to experience something new; and for a good reason, too." She held Sybil's hand as she talked. "I think the adventurer we're with can really help us find a way to go back, even if we're all becoming adventurers."

Sybil frowned, still uneasy of the idea. "Well…does it hurt?"

"Oh no, not at all!" Emi said, smiling at the innocent question

"Unless you're hungry for too long," Cupa chimed in. "But you don't have to worry about that with us!"

"Oh, that's good…" Sybil managed to genuinely smile back, if only for a short time. She still felt a little down about it all.

"The change…it might seem a little scary at first," Cupa continued, "but I think you'll learn a lot about yourself when you go learn how to adapt with it. You feel so many new things that I'm sure you're already feeling right now." She took out a piece of equipment in its compact form. "Sometimes, it just _feels_ like I was always meant to be this way, you know? Here, hold out your hand."

Sybil did, the tiny square gliding from Cupa's palm to hers. "Wow…what is it?"

"It's a crafting table," Emi answered.

Cupa closed Sybil's fingers over it. "Keep it. You'll need it."

"Really?" The spider girl smiled wide. "Thanks! But I never owned anything before. Where should I put it?"

"Well, in your inventory!" Cupa looked to Emi. It was her turn to teach.

"Oh! That's an easy one. Just close your eyes, look inside yourself, and place it where it belongs. Err…" Emi gave a sheepish smile. "It's easier than it sounds. Give it a try."

"Hm. Okay." Sybil shrugged and tried to focus with her eyes closed. Feeling just right, she opened her hand again to take a look. "Wow, it's gone!"

"Mhm. Safe in your inventory for later use!" Emi smiled proudly at Sybil while Cupa felt proud herself. She was the one who taught Emi in the first place, after all.

"Hey, that's pretty neat!" Sybil said, finding the crafting table and pulling it out again. "Can you teach me how to use it?"

"Sure!" Cupa said. "I'm not sure how much wool we have with us, but Emi and I can help make some new clothes for you."

"Sounds fun, don't you think?" Emi said.

"Yeah…that sounds fun!"

The three girls began piecing the different colored wools together atop of Sybil's new crafting table. Just as expected, Sybil tended to pick the red, black, and grey pieces. All Cupa knew how to make was something similar to a jacket. It was going to be a part of the spider's wardrobe whether she liked it or not. Emi wanted to make some small talk while they worked. "So what's it like living in a cave? I wonder if your experience is different than Cupa's."

"Yeah, I've been wondering that, too," Cupa said. "What's it like living with spiders?"

"Well, I dunno how to describe it." Sybil answered, unsure of what would be interesting to talk about. "I did explore the caves..."

Cupa nodded. "Yep."

"…and I would stay away from the cave spiders in the mineshafts…"

"Interesting!" Emi said

"…and I would talk to the other mob girls…"

"That's co-wait what?" Cupa stopped mid-crafting.

Emi turned to Sybil. "Did you say 'other' mob girls?" She asked, unsure if she heard right.

"Yup." Sybil said, not quite understanding why they were so surprised. "Why?"

Cupa and Emi both looked to each other knowingly before asking her. "How many?"

"Two."

...

As I explored, I realized the cave system did turn out to be complex. I had to pick paths between forks multiple times, making sure I had a way to trace back my footsteps. The torches I placed did that job well enough. I got a little caught up in exploration and lost track of time. At this point I wasn't sure how far I had gone from the others, though I wasn't in a rush to get back soon. I had no idea how long it'd take before Sybil settled down. I hoped she'd be okay with me once I got back. I really did want to help her, but I could only do that if she'd let me.

I eventually went into a path that landed into a dead end. I thought that it was about time to get back to the others, anyways. So, I started taking down the torches so the group didn't end up going down here. Right as I reached for my torch on the wall, I heard a bow draw behind me. That didn't surprise me. What did surprise me was that it was followed by a voice.

"Don't. Move."


	6. Chapter 4-2

I raised my hands above my head and turned. A small group of skeletons had their bows drawn and held. In front of the group stood a tall woman with silver hair and eyes, her bow also drawn. Another mob girl. This was the first time I've seen skeletons hesitating to shoot. If the mob girl wasn't there, I might have already had a few arrows in me. Still, I didn't exactly feel safe.

"Are you the one putting up these torches?" The skeleton girl asked.

I nodded my head yes. My hands didn't move from their spot in the air.

"Very convenient for us," She said. I could tell she wasn't exactly grateful. "Despite your help, you'll have to leave. And drop all the torches you have." She drew her bowstring farther back to enhance her point.

The skeletons beside her were getting restless. Eerie, hollowed noises came from them, but I wasn't entirely sure they were aimed at me. I tried to warn her about the imminent attack on the both of us, but there wasn't a chance in the depths of the Nether that she'd trust me.

Her cold eyes remained unfazed. "Nice try. Now drop them."

I pulled out my sword as I see one of the skeletons turn their aim towards her. I shouted at her to look out.

"I said drop them!" She fired her bow. I managed to dodge the arrow in time thanks to my head start, but she wasn't so lucky. Right as she moved to chase after me, the skeleton beside her fired his bow, the arrow driving straight into her arm.

"Gaah!" The skeleton woman clutched her arm as blood from the entry wound. I tackled her out of the way before the other skeleton could shoot an arrow through her back. I had no time to make sure she was okay. Turning quickly, I lashed out the closest skeleton before he could load another arrow, smashing him to the ground. The remaining mob aimed at its new threat, but I was quick enough to deflect his shot with the face of my sword. With a quick step in, I lunged the sword into its ribcage and tore it apart. I approached the other skeleton as it started getting back up, smashing in its skull before it could retaliate.

I hurried to the injured woman, taking out my left-over bandage rolls. She had already snapped the arrow in half and was working on pulling it out. Her body was shaking from the pain as she yanked out the arrow. "Aaah! Damn it!" She tossed the arrow and clutched tightly around the wound. I kneeled next to her, trying to move her hand so I could treat her properly.

She leaned away, wary of me. "What did you do? Why did they attack me?"

I had a good idea by now, though I was still no closer to solving the problem. I said I would explain it to her later. It was important that I stopped the bleeding before anything else.

The skeleton woman nodded, removing her hand. Her forearm was drenched in red by the time I finished wrapping up the wound. I asked if there were any other skeletons nearby on her way over here.

She shook her head. "I'm usually the only one to patrol out this far."

I looked at her, perplexed. Patrol? By skeletons?

...

Sybil looked over her new clothing: Striped stockings, thin pants to be tucked under them, and a black jacket to match. They even managed to make a hair band with decorative spider eyes. She tied her hair back in one long ponytail before putting it on, completing her whole outfit.

"Wow, you look brand new!" Emi clapped her hands together tightly.

"Yeah," Cupa said. "You look great!"

"Thanks!" Sybil was glad they ended up liking her take on the design. A brand new spider, fashion-ready for adventure. And comfy too. "This stuff feels so much better than my old clothes."

They all sat back around the campfire. "So tell us more about Kalio," Cupa said. "What else does she do?"

"She's the only one out of the three of us to explore the outside world," Sybil said with some admiration in her voice. "She often travels with the skeletons in her small group of highly trained skeletons. Her specific team tours around the land during the night to learn about it. Kalio has the cave memorized for sure, and protects it from any humans that might wander here."

"She sounds very capable," Emi said, smiling. "Is she the leader?"

"Naah...or, for her group, maybe?" The spider girl replied. "But I think all group leaders guide the skeleton camps together."

Cupa listened intently. "Camps? They sound so organized. How is that even possible? Aren't all of us spread out?" She said, a little jealous. "I never saw more the two creepers at the same time."

"Hm." Sybil thought about it for a moment. "Kalio was the one with the idea, I guess. She managed to round up all of the skeletons in this cave system to live in a more compact area. It allowed so much more space in the caves for free use. The spiders and cave spiders took after them. Now we all live in decently sized communities in three separate places. The spiders get the sea-ward side of the cave, the skeletons get the land-ward side, and cave spiders went to the mine shafts." The spider girl looked perplexed. "You know…maybe she really _is_ the leader."

"What about you?" Emi asked. "Are you the leader for the spiders here?"

The spider girl gave a smug grin. "I like to think so."

Cupa and Emi both chuckled, turning Sybil red. "W-what?! You don't think I can lead?"

"No, of course you can!" Emi said, trying to take back her laughing.

"She's just being nice. I think you're a little too impulsive." Cupa answered.

Sybil grabbed Cupa by the collar of her hoodie, pulling her slightly down to eye level. "I could throw you back in with the spiders! Then we'll see who's impulsive." She said, more or less proving Cupa's point. Realizing this, she let go of Cupa and sat down again, crossing her arms and mumbling to herself. "I am _not_ impulsive..."

Emi sat beside her, giving her a hug. "We were only kidding. You're pretty tough. I saw that mean kick you gave to one of the spiders during our escape."

Sybil's grin was quick to return. "Yeah, I do have pretty strong legs. They're as quick as any spider's!" She lept up and charged up her leg, spearing it straight into the cave wall. "P'chow!" The cave rumbles from the force and the bats above fly down in droves, screeching and flying deeper into the cave. The three of them are left startled. "Oops...sorry."

Cupa resisted saying 'I told you so'. Instead, the kick reminded her of something. "Hey! Are any of the mob girls here missing abilities?" She asked Sybil.

"What do you mean?"

"Well..." Emi explained, "I can't multiply like the slimes can, and Cupa can't explode."

Sybil gave it some thought. "Um...I don't think so. Spider's bite and make web, which I can do. Vel the Cave Spider can do that too, but I don't think she has venom like the others. And Kalio shoots arrows like the rest of the skeletons. She can even shoot three at a time, so she's even better off than the rest of them."

"So only Vel? But even _she_ can do at least some things..." Cupa said. "Me and Emi thought it might be a defect with all of us. Maybe it's only a creeper and slime thing?"

Sybil shrugged. "Don't know. But we all had to learn our abilities. Maybe you two just haven't learned yours yet."

"Yeah...and speaking of which, how are the creepers here?" Cupa asked.

"And the slimes?" Emi added on.

"Oh," Sybil said. "We don't have any of those here."

Cupa frowned. "What? Not even one? But we're everywhere."

Sybil shrugged. "I dunno…maybe they used to live here? I don't remember seeing one though. I only ever hear about them from Kalio."

"Fascinating!" Emi said. "A cave community of only 3 mob species. Maybe this cave is one of the few outliers where three mob species spawn heavily past the others. The lower populations might have caused them to be driven out naturally, leaving the three mobs to have the rest of the cave fill with their own population and block out any other mobs from forming."

Sybil had trouble closing her mouth. "Woah."

"Yeah," Cupa said. "Where did all of that come from?"

"Oh…" Suddenly, Emi looked flustered. "Slimes just tend to be very territorial. I remember seeing other mobs in the earlier stages of my life. They disappeared as I grew older, so this was the conclusion I came up with. Any mob that stumbles in on the swamp would get pushed out by the slimes."

"Oh," Sybil said. It worried her that Kalio might be the reason it was only the three mobs there. "I don't think Kalio would have driven anyone out. She's very nice towards all mobs."

"She might not have had a choice, sweetie. The others might have felt it was best to leave no matter what." Emi replied. "This world just doesn't like it when something breaks away from being normal. Besides, wouldn't you want to find more of your kind if there were only a few spiders here?"

"Yeah," Sybil answered. "But I wouldn't just leave them to find a bigger group. I'd take the spiders here with me, too."

Emi smiled. "Then I'd say that's exactly what happened here."

...

"Kalio," She said in response, working on the last piece of dried apple I had given her. "So. Am I the first one you found in this cave?"

I shook my head, telling her about Sybil waiting back in camp with the other girls. I was glad to know the two already knew each other. It made things much easier. At least she was handling the whole adventurer thing better.

"I see…is she alright? How has she handled the news?"

I shook my head again. Not good. It was the reason why I left in the first place.

Her eyes went to the ground. "I see…then you'll be able to take me to her?"

I nodded.

"If what you say is true, I'm a fugitive to my own kind. I think it would be best if you allowed me to travel with Sybil."

I completely understood. Not that I had any reason to deny her. It might help Sybil if she saw a familiar face. Plus, Kalio seemed to be able to handle herself pretty well. However, I could still feel some of the vibes that Sybil gave me the first time we met. I wished they wouldn't be so presumptuous towards me because I was human. Maybe if I was better looking. It seemed every mob girl I ran into so far was hand-drawn. Literally. I was being dumb, though. I'm sure the last thing they were thinking of was traveling with some square.

It was time to get moving. I picked up my bag and reached again to take down the torches.

Kalio stopped me. "I'd rather you leave those up. I know my way around here, so you don't have to worry about getting lost."

I still wanted to save the torches, but figured she must have had her reasons. I asked why she wanted me to drop my torches from before as we continued our way back.

"The communities have started to become overpopulated." She answered. "Ever since we organized ourselves, more and more mobs kept coming from the tunnels. We learned that the light from the torches were bright enough stop the spawning, but not enough to hurt us."

I knew that the skeletons couldn't have made the torches themselves. The only way they could get was from other humans. I assumed that they took the torches from any human that passed by. Or worse, killed them for it. I went with the former because it made me less uncomfortable.

She nodded in response. "We had recently gotten a dozen or so and were in the middle of putting them up before we found you. Most of the cave is finished. Sybil's area is the only place that remains unlit."

I told her that she wouldn't have to worry, since that's where we came from. We had the single narrow tunnel from the ocean covered, at least.

"Good. That saves me the trouble of traveling there." She tried to test out her injured left arm, barely able to raise it straight. "Now that I'm like this, I'm not sure I want to be anywhere close to Sybil's spiders. She may have the biggest community here out of us three."

I didn't doubt her after seeing it first-hand.

…

It wasn't long after that when we returned to the camp. The three seemed to be getting along pretty well, with Sybil wearing her brand new outfit that Cupa must have helped her make. The spider girl spotted Kale and ran to her. "Kalio!"

Kalio smiled and hugged her. "Hey," She said, giving Sybil a tight squeeze. It was the first time I saw Kalio smile.

Cupa and Emi watched, happy that Sybil managed to see one of her friends again.

"It's good to see you again…wait." The spider girl frowned and looked over to the bandage on Kalio's arm. "How did this happen?"

"Skeletons turned on me," She said. "I was told you experienced something similar?"

Sybil nodded, preferring not to talk too much about it. "I'm okay now, though."

I'm not sure if Kalio was convinced, but she gave the spider a reassuring smile. "Same with me. So don't worry about it." Looking up from Sybil, she saw me join the other two girls. "You two are Emi and Cupa?"

Cupa raised her hand. "Cupa."

"I'm Emi!"

Kalio gave them a small nod of acknowledgement. "I hope all of you will do well in teaching me and Sybil."

"Oh yeah," Sybil said. "They're great. Look at this outfit they helped me make!"

"I've noticed." She said, grinning. "How about you make me something, too?"

As much as I didn't want to ruin their fun, we still needed to make it out of the cave. I interrupted them to warn them of the danger of staying here to long as we were limited on food resources. I was also worried about the level of organization in Kalio's skeleton community. I asked her how extensive their patrolling was.

"They can most likely keep their groups without me, especially with the help of the other group leaders." She answered.

Hopefully we wouldn't run into any. I made it clear that if we ran into any skeleton patrols, it may be best to not leave any of them alive. Running was not an option.

"Is that really necessary?" Sybil asked. She seemed worried about Kalio having to fight against her own community of skeletons, especially the ones that she had previously led.

"They hate us," Cupa said to the spider girl. "I felt it when I confronted a creeper. They see you so differently. You must have felt it too, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but-"

"She's right," Kalio said. "They did not hesitate to shoot me. If we leave any alive, they may report back to the rest of the community. Then the patrols will become endless and we'll have a harder time leaving this cave."

"They might not even stop there."

Emi spoke up. We all turned to her. She continued. "When we were still back at the swamp, they slimes didn't stop chasing us until we were outside on the beaches. I heard that your group is known for exploring outside of the cave. If that's true, then they may never stop hunting for us."

"I see…then that is a possibility as well," Kalio said. "It may be best to assume the worst-case scenario."

The rest of us all nodded and voiced our agreement. It was decided.

"…Maybe we should find Vel?"

It was Sybil's turn to surprise everyone.

Emi looked worried. "But why? Wouldn't you want her to stay with her community?"

"She isn't as close to them as me and Kalio are to ours," Sybil said. "Besides, she might miss me a lot..."

Kalio gave her a look.

"…and Kalio too!" She said quickly. "But I'm better friends with her." She whispered to me.

"Also, have you considered that our transformations have nothing to do with your arrival in our vicinities?" The skeleton woman said to me.

I told her I did, but there seemed to be too many coincidences in that case.

"What if they're just that? Coincidences?" She replied. "If we leave Vel behind and she transforms regardless of our arrival, then I fear she may not be able to escape this cave by herself with three large hostile communities chasing after her."

Well, couldn't say no to that. Better to take her away from her home than have her be potentially killed by her own kind. Still, I couldn't help but feel guilty I was somehow stealing her.

"That means we have to find her!" Sybil said. "And I know just the place."

"Sybil and I will lead the way," Kalio said. "I'll make sure we don't get to close to the patrol areas."

We started our way down the cave tunnels once more, torches in hand. Cupa, Emi, and I stayed some distance back as Kalio and Sybil walked with each other in the front. We began talking amongst ourselves. "Wow," Emi said. "It's a good thing we found those two. We may have never made it out of the cave."

"We still aren't out yet," Cupa replied, looking for more food in her bag. "But Kalio _does_ look pretty strong."

"I wonder if she could teach me how to use a bow?" Emi wondered. "How come you never tried teaching me?" She asked me.

Woops. During our training, I had completely forgot that was an option. The same went with Cupa. Though to be fair, I was more focused on how she punched the wooden dummy in half. I really should have made a list to go off of, considering how many girls I had ran into already. In perspective, I don't think I was doing too bad so far. They were all at least capable of defending themselves. Sort of. Training isn't as easy as it sounds. Hopefully Kalio would be willing to help on that end. I told Emi me and Kalio would try our best, though I'm not sure if the skeleton woman could be bothered. It could be her way of helping out since we brought her to travel with us in the first place. Then again, I got her shot in the arm. That leaves us at even, then, depending on how you value the trade-off. I guess I could teach Emi myself.

The cave started to fall into more twists and turns. There were a few times where we heard skeleton bones in the distance, but Kalio did great in keeping us just far enough where they couldn't hear us. Eventually, the turns stop and we see supports constructed out of dark oak. A few sparse torches lay across the top wooden beams, still lighting the tunnels for whoever may stumble across them. Emi accidentally bumps into one of supports, making a handful of loose dirt fall from above. She gave an apologetic look. At least we knew to be extra careful.

The end of this particular tunnel opened up to an incredibly deep ravine. We happened to be near the bottom, thanks to our luck. Even then, we could see the distant beams of sunlight peaking through the narrow cracks far above us. The ravine's length seemed to stretch forever on either side with multiple mine cart tracks running through them. Multiple falls of water and lava were dispersed along the ravine walls. No doubt about it. We were here. I didn't expect the mineshaft to be so big.

"Here we are!" Sybil said. "Now all we have to do is find Vel."

Sounds easy enough.


End file.
